Secrets in the Shadows
by Fanimaniac
Summary: "Blood, there will always be blood. Pouring down from everything with a soul. Whether it is on the walls, on your past, or on your hands, there is one thing for certain in life… There will always be blood."


_Blood._

_There will always be blood. Thick pools of the warm red liquid dripping from his teeth like a waterfall of agony._

_He loved it._

_The King walked through the Crystal hallways of his empire with a growing sense of importance and determination. Bearing a smug smirk wherever he went. One by one his guards bowed their fearful respects. Cowards… the lot of them. He stopped in his tracks and suddenly snapped his powerful blood-soaked teeth at one of his guards. The poor thing, he nearly had a heart attack._

_Oh well, one less coward._

_He continued his path through the halls. A brief clicking every time one of his armored hooves tapped the velvet flooring. He could faintly hear them now. The cries of the citizens of his empire. Slowly but surely he sauntered his way to his crystal balcony. The dark rocks shimmering with malice and destruction._

_He reached his balcony and gazed out into the grey hued sky. He gazed down at his slaves working tirelessly bringing in his beautiful diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. Every gemstone he can imagine was being mined out by his servants. His eyes glistened with greed, lust, and gluttony that reflected the beautiful blinding light made by the gems._

_So beautiful…_

_He licked the last of the blood from his sharp fangs. Grinning. Down near the entrance of one of the mines he watched as a once strong and embodied ebony stallion dropped to his knees in exhaustion. One of the King's fearfully faithful overseers cracked the stallion's side and head with a whip multiple times before he was able to stand again. The stallion's mane was a deep midnight blue and dripping with sweat and blood. He looked strong, but the years of hard labor have not been good to him. His coat was shaggy and unkempt, he was heavily malnourished, the ripples on his sides very apparent despite the distance._

_The King smirked again as the stallion failed to pull the massive amount of weight attached to his cart. He was whipped again. The cracks sounding loud and clear in the air. Mixing with the cries of the damned. Yet the stallion did not cry out in pain. He simply took his beatings and attempted to stand again._

_The King laughed at the poor soul forced to work. The whip cracked down on the stallion again and again until he fell and would never get up again. Two other slave ponies came with a cart already loaded with the dead, and loaded the deceased stallion onto the cart before quickly trotting off to dispose of them._

_The King thought nothing of it. If the stallion couldn't work, what was the point of his existence? With that final image, he turned and began his way, backtracking the halls he came from. Nothing but the clicking of his hooves to create any sound._

_He wasn't always this cruel…_

"Stop her! Theif! Don't let her get away!" A guard calls out. I hid is a bush as I watched this all take place. She snuck up and stole bread and bits from a shopkeeper.

She jumped and sped out of the marketplace, her hooves pounding on the solid rock. They won't catch her, they never do. One of the guards giving chase tried to make a sharp turn and tumbled into a second pile of guards.

Intense laughter is behind me. Leviticus was laughing hysterically at the spectacle.

I was never truly a fan of Leviticus, or Levi, as She calls him. He was Her son. He was a deep black with a spiky black mane, if you'd even call it that, it was so small. His eyes were just a solid teal blue, no iris, no pupil, just blue. Small but sharp incisors dazzled the front of his mouth. He was "gifted" as well. He was an Alicorn. Except he didn't have the beautiful pegasus wings ponies normally have. His wings resembled an insect. Whenever he irritated me i just called him "Horsefly" and he'd get real mad real fast.

Me? I was just an ordinary young unicorn. Grey with a black mane, ebony eyes, no fangs, no wings. All in all I was nothing special at all. I was orphaned at birth and abandoned by anyone who could ever help me. Thats where She came into the picture.

She rescued me. She took care of me like I was her own son. I can't say I care for her though, I've just learned not to care for a lot of things since my mother died. But I think she understood.

"I'm going to take a walk around." I said, turning my head away from the scrambling of the guards.

Leviticus shot me a dirty look. "But you're going to miss the best part."

"I've seen Her lose guards every day. Nothing different."

"Yeah but haven't you wondered why there were so many guards out today? Theres almost double the normal amount."

I pursed my lips and thought for a moment. I did notice the gain in patrol. It never really nagged me though. Unlike Levi I was free to walk around at any time without fear of guards breathing down my neck. But unlike me, Levi was also "gifted" with the ability to change into any pony he saw fit.

"Well, I'm going, are you coming Horsefly?"

He snorted irritatingly. "Nah, I'm gonna watch Her."

On that note, I nodded and climbed out of the bush slowly to avert any unwanted attention. I calmly trotted around carelessly through the night while the guards were still preoccupied with Her.

I saw a large gathering of ponies around a large stage-like platform. I nudged and shoved my little body up to the front. With the illuminance of the streets and lights behind me, it was a bit harder to see. I squinted my eyes when suddenly two small torches were lit on either side of the platform. Bugles stilled the anticipating crowd. Temporarily blind and deaf from the sudden onset of excitement. I shook my head to rid myself of the dizziness.

Blinking away the dots, I gazed upon a beautiful Alicorn. Her body was a pure white with a rainbow mane that flowed even though she stood still. Her angelic wings spread out as she acknowledged the crowd. At once, it seemed, all of the ponies in the crowd bowed down. I was confused as to why, seeing as I live with two Alicorns every day.

"Get down on your knees son." A gruff voice said in my ear as I felt myself dragged to the ground. "Show some respect."

My small knees buckled under the pressure and my face was forced down to the ground. I let out a yelp of shock as dirt filled my open mouth. I spastically jumped up, spitting out the dirt madly and loudly, trying to remove the disgusting flavor from my mouth.

I must have caused quite a scene, because everything and everyone stopped to stare at me hacking away removing the last filters of soil from me.

A guard rushed at me and picked me up by my mane. I howled in pain as the hairs slowly began pulling out of their roots. The guard had a stern face with stern features. He dangled me in front of him like a rag doll.

"You think it's funny to spit at the Princess!" He roared out and began shaking me violently. I gritted my teeth as tears began to race down my cheeks.

"Stop this at once!" Another voice calls out. The guard stops and drops me as if I weighed two hundred pounds. I quickly curled myself into a little ball to prevent any damage to my underbelly and head. The crest of my neck slightly bleeding from the excess of hair nearly ripped out.

The Alicorn Princess made her way over to me. "Oh dear he's only a little foal." She gently nuzzled me, pushing her nose to make me uncurl myself. "Hello there little one." She soothed to me as I slowly stood up. "Why don't you watch the celebration from the platform?"

"Wh-what celebration?" I asked aloud.

She let out a content chuckle. "The Summer Sun Celebration. Come and watch."

I followed her past the anxious crowd. I noticed there was a black pony staring daggers at me. I didn't recognize who it was. I paused to get a good look until a guard nudged me from behind, telling me to move along. I quickly doubled my pace to keep up with the Alicorn Princess as we made our way up to the platform with the lit torches. She stopped a few feet after the stairs.

"You just wait here, and watch." She smiled warmly down at me. Just then, another bugle sounded as she made her way to the platform yet again, acknowledging the crowd. She drifted her head down before making a great vertical leap in the air, pulling herself higher and higher. Her white horn glowing a blindingly bright gold. I watched, mesmerized by her illuminance. Suddenly, her horn glowed twice as bright.

And the sun rose…

All of the ponies in the crowd began to cheer. I stood, mouth agape, completely transfixed by the whole scenario.

_How in Equestria can one pony be so strong she can lift the sun?_

I cut my gaze to wander around the platform. On the opposing side of the stage, there sat another Alicorn. She had a flowing mane much like the Princess', but hers was a deep, starry blue. If this rainbow-maned Princess was the sun, then this mare was the moon. She looked very discontent at the celebration, a scowl clearly visible on her face. She walked past the other Alicorn as the guards bowed to her.

"Princess Luna." One of them stated formally.

_So… Luna is your name. I thought_

"Please prepare my carriage. I'd like to go back to the castle." She stated regally.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "You don't like the celebration?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Who is this?" She sneered.

One of the guards stiffened up, but then relaxed. "Princess Celestia took pity on him after he didn't bow to her."

Princess Luna's eyes widened a bit, then she narrowed them again.

"So, you like to disrespect authority?" She spat.

"N-no?" I said confused.

"Why, you're only just a little colt. Haven't you learned anything in school?" She demanded.

"I-I don't go to school." I stammered out, my heart hammering in my chest.

"Well it shows." She opened her mouth to say more but stopped when the other Princess interrupted her.

"Luna, enough. He's too young for school and you know that. Don't pick on a young colt, sister, you are better than that."

_Sister?_

The two of them bickered like old maids for a bit. The smaller, darker one clearly not getting the advantage against the other Princess. Eventually the larger one won the argument.

"Very well, have it your way. I will see you back at the castle Celestia." She stated icily, before getting onto her dark carriage and riding off into the night.

_So her name is Celestia. Hm. Celestia and Luna._

Celestia came over to me. "I'm sorry about that my little pony. My sister has been a bit… off… lately. I hope she didn't scare you."

"N-no."

"Good." She smiled warmly at me again. I can't remember the last time I was on the receiving end of a warm, motherly smile. I began to smile back at her.

"Sombra!" The sudden voice made me jolt.

The Princess averted her attention from me to the new voice. It was the black mare who was giving me a death stare earlier.

"Oh my goodness Princess Celestia I am so sorry. He's so little and he doesn't understand much and I went to pay for some food and when I turned around he was gone."

Celestia slightly narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the new pony.

The pony then turned to me and lectured me in a stern voice. "Sombra what did I tell you about running off? You could've…" She rambled on and on. As she went on, I noticed she flashed her eyes from an ebony color, to a teal blue, and back to ebony.

Then it hit me.

She came to find me.

"I-I'm sorry mother." I stammered out, wanting to suddenly get away from the Alicorn Princess as soon as possible. "I didn't mean to."

Celestia subtly widened her eyes a bit, then let out a warm chuckle. "That's quite alright. He got to watch the celebration from the best view you can get."

"Again, I thank you, and I am so sorry." I was grabbed by my mane as She led me away from the Princess and the other ponies. She eventually let go and I followed her out of town, towards the Everfree forest. Once we were inside the forest, she changed back to her usual self.

She was an Alicorn as well. Black with a blue mane and tail, and insect-like wings, and a jagged horn. She stood nearly as tall as the Alicorn Princess.

Leviticus appeared from behind a bush. "Did you find him?" He asked, then he spotted me.

"Where have you been? It's completely daylight now. Where did you go?"

"Nevermind that." She snapped. "You two need to eat." She ripped off a few pieces from the bread and fruit she stole from the merchant. "Eat up colts. We have plans."

"What kind of plans Chryssy?" I asked, my mouth full.

"Plans." Was simply all she was going to give us.


End file.
